Blogging is by now well-established, yet it seems that it hasn’t really filtered all the way down to small business owners. Even if it has, chances are that entrepreneurs could get even more marketing value out of their blog. Bright Launch is in the business of convincing small business owners that new technologies can make a significant impact, and don’t cost much to deploy.
ZD Net recently hosted a panel discussion on power blogging, including Jeff Jarvis of Buzzmachine, Peter Rojas of Engadget and Elizabeth Spiers, founder of Dead Horse Media, which publishes Dealbreaker.com. Included topics ranged from:
- What’s you best tip for building audience?
Spiers: “Create great content and do a lot of it. You have to publish constantly–12 posts a day. Eight to 10 if original.”
Jarvis: “Link out. If not you’re not part of the conversation.”Rojas: “Create good content. Pick a niche or area you want to focus on. Find the smallest area you can find and own that niche.”
- How do you build traffic and sell it?
Spiers says some PR can’t hurt to go along with good content. For instance, Dealbreaker is widely known on Wall Street, which is a nice target for advertisers. Break some news, get a mention in mainstream media outlets such as The New York Times and New York Post and traffic follows.
Spiers’ biggest tip: Mainstream media does nothing for traffic, but helps sell your site to advertisers. The traffic comes from links from other sites. “It’s very easy for my sales guy to shop around Dealbreaker because the financial community is already aware of it. The median income for a Dealbreaker reader is $220,000 a year. That’s not difficult to shop to an agency.”
